Marching on...

 We drive by this old railroad bridge, which seems to be unattached to anything, on our way to the Albany, Missouri chapel.  This time I was able to catch a picture of it.  We spent several hours at the Albany chapel this past week changing out paper towel and toilet paper holders.  It was a rather unexciting assignment but we did manage to catch a few laughs in the process.

 We needed to install a roll of the new sized toilet paper on this holder to make certain it would fit.  None of the 4 of us could figure out how to remove the old roll and install the new one.  I suggested that maybe the roll had to be empty in order to reach the mechanism and release it.  Elder Briggs took the initiative to find out and unroll the smallest roll.  That allowed me to take this humorous photo which he didn't care for but we thought was hilarious.

 The next day, we spent a lot of time doing repairs at the Clayview chapel.  The doorbell at the family history center wasn't working but it vital to gaining entrance there.  Four heads worked several hours solving this electrical mystery.

 After the men fixed that issue, they had to haul a lot of junk around to the other side of the church to the dumpster.  We got a kick out of the three men in a truck--actually four as Elder Briggs was driving the truck.

While the men were fixing the doorbell and some other items, Sister Briggs and I took on the task of putting together this heavy duty table cart.  When we first opened the box, there were so many bolts, screws and parts, we were wishing we hadn't opened it.  However, we were determined to figure it out so we persevered.

About an hour and a half later, voila, a cart.  We did it!

 The Clayview gymasium is huge and we used two lifts, and two crews to get all of the light bulbs changed.  The hardest part for me was cleaning up the mess when one of the bulbs got dropped and shattered all over the place.  That was truly a large scattering of tiny glass pieces!

 We loaded and hauled a lot of junk away too.  Can you believe that people actually dropped off mattresses behind the dumpster.  Yup!

Then we went to Far West to remove broken branches from the trees that were damaged during the recent ice storms.  We usually leave things looking much better than when we arrive.

 Friday morning we left home for work with this beautiful view of the sunrise from our back door.  What a nice way to start the day!

We were assigned to check out and take care of the Liberty Jail, Far West, Hauns Mill, and the Richmond cemetery.

Here Steve installs a new doorstop at the Liberty Jail Visitors' Center.

We found this muddy mess at Hauns Mill.  The road was difficult to drive on, but Steve handled it well.

We were excited to see this field of winter wheat starting to green up.  This gives us hope that spring really will come.  This picture was taken on Friday.

This is a picture of the same field on Monday.

 When we do those regular inspection rounds, we often pass this Kingston Courthouse.  This time we stopped to read the sign.  The county seat was moved to Kingston after the Mormons were expelled from Far West.  Far West, a thriving town, basically died after that.  Kingston hasn't done much better.  It is a dilapidated, little town with this as the only impressive building for miles around.

Friday night we hosted the elders for dinner and Jason, our branch's newest member and Michael, who is working on returning to full activity.  It was a fun group.

 Immediately after dinner, we rushed off to the temple.  We attended the 8 p.m. session and then stayed to help clean the temple afterwards.  They closed the freeway for repairs and the detour signs were not well posted.  We got lost temporarily, but were finally able to find our way home.  By that time it was after 11:30 which was very late for us senior missionaries.  We were tired!
Here is the full moon rising above the horizon from the temple parking lot.

Saturday, we mostly stayed home, but I did put my first completed quilt in the mail for my friend, Jean's birthday.  I was very happy to finally finish a quilt even though it was a simple one.  Hooray!

 Wednesday nite, we had a sewing night and had a little treat to celebrate our master quilter's birthday.  Ann is a master quilter and teacher.

Sunday, our kids were ready when we stopped by to pick them up for church.  That made us VERY happy.  We love it when they attend.  Neville escaped getting his picture but we caught Monica and Christine.

 Steve has been battling a severe gout attack for a week now.  This photo was taken when it started feeling better.  Steve has been so diligent in working every day and hasn't missed a single assignment in spite of the extreme pain involved.  We have modified our diet and added herbs and oils to the regimen hoping to speed his recovery.  It hasn't been a fun time for him, but he has continued to press forward.

 Sunday evening, he stayed home with his foot up while I attended the monthly fireside hosted by the mission president where newly baptized members tell their stories and bear their testimonies.  It was an inspiring and uplifting  evening.  During the closing song, I felt the Spirit very strongly and was too emotional to sing.  I was impressed with the thought that Heavenly Father is aware of us and aware of the painful challenges Steve has been experiencing.  I felt that all would be well again soon.
Right after the prayer, our friend offered to give Steve a blessing.  Two couples followed me home and the men gave Steve a beautiful blessing.  We are grateful for good friends who love serving the Lord and are willing to serve us.  Things will start improving now for Steve.

Monday, after we completed our rounds, several members of our work group tried out the new mower we will be using this summer to maintain Hauns Mill and Far West.  Steve and Vickie were both excited to drive  it.

 Tuesday, we drove to Cameron for zone conference.  Sister Briggs and I were asked to help Sister Love with the luncheon so we baked lasagnas and helped to set out and serve the 70+ missionaries there.  It turned out well.  Zone conferences are a spiritual highlight.  I had two favorite quotes:  This one from President Love, "The work of salvation is more exciting than a bumblebee up your nose or a fire in your pants."  One of the young missionaries said this about doing hard things.  "Focus on the opportunity rather than the obligation. "
After the lunch, the men had to haul the cherry-picker lift over to a chapel to fix parking lot lights and then bring it back to Independence to our shop.  The after noon was filled with several weather changes, including a couple of white out blizzards and strong winds.  Hauling that lift was a huge challenge.

It was by far the coldest day of the week the next day as we finally removed all the Christmas lights from the trees at the Visitors' Center.  With weather, schedules, emergencies, etc. this was the first chance we have had to get the lift from the Adam-ondi-Ahman mission for this task.

 Our boss Mark is up in the lift removing lights and handing them down to someone below.

Elder and Sister Briggs endured the freezing weather and gathered up and organized strings of lights.

 The Briggs and us used long poles with hooks to remove lights.  It was freezing cold and we were VERY HAPPY when that chore was completed a few hours later.  Below Steve is resting his foot for a few minutes while Mark finishes up in the lift.

We were so relieved to get these lights taken down.  We had hoped for better weather, but we survived.